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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Machine Dreamers: Maria Ramirez, of the Broadway robotics team, puts robot Blitz through his paces. The team won the NASA Founders Award on Nov. 18.
Broadway robotics team receives a NASA award
By Jessica Lyons
Eight letter jacket-clad Broadway High School students on Nov. 18 received the NASA Founders Award for the team's victory in the 1999 U.S. Robotics Competition.
The Broadway Bay Bombers team of Sarah Thornhill, Steven Lugo, Marisol Urias, Isaac Fimbrez, Rosamaria Ramirez, Teddy Herrera, Jamie Robles, Eddie Corona and robot Blitz this spring placed first in the NASA Ames regional robotics tournament, competing against 300 teams from the western United States. At the national competition in Florida, Broadway made it to the finals and won the National Judges' Award for Achievement and Inspiration.
Team members Lugo, Herrera, Ramirez and Thornhill now have internships at NASA and recently traveled to Hawaii and Alaska to recruit robotics teams for the 2000 competition.
Dave Lavery, program executive for solar and planetary exploration from NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., presented Broadway Principal Susan Votaw with the award. The robotics team then demonstrated Blitz's pillow-catching skills.
Lavery told the teams he hopes they will continue to study robotics because NASA needs more human-robot space exploration missions.
"I'll hire every one of you," he told the Broadway students. "We need you to come and work for us. We desperately need you."
Teddy Herrera, who spent a week in Chile setting up a NASA telescope that will be used to study the southern hemisphere, said he plans to take Lavery up on the offer.
"I'm going to go to college and be hired by NASA," he said with a confident smile.
The trophy, a clock with visible metal gears encased in glass, will be housed at Broadway for a year.
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